Joya: AIR / Nina Maria Allmoslechner / AUT

When I first heard, read, and already got to see photographs of this soul-nourishing place, I could only imagine how it must feel to be part of this artist community. A house in the middle of what seems to be nowhere but feels like everything, a destination that Donna and Simon have been building not only through hard but most importantly heart work. When I arrived I realized that the house from the outside does indeed look like in these photographs, the trees were greener than I expected despite the fact Joya: air lies in one of the warmest places you could find on the map. And perhaps that is what I would like to reflect on. The warmth of this place, and I am afraid I am not talking about the weather right now.
The warmth that my body could instantly feel through Donna’s beyond delicious meals, making sure the artists were being fed nutritious dishes after long days of working in the studio.
The warmth that I got to experience through sincere and very intimate conversations. The warmth through everyone around me holds space for each other and shows respect and understanding of our individual crafts and the language we use to express ourselves.
The warmth of Frida (Donna’s and Simon’s dog), when she would lay against your body to show you that it is a safe space and you are protected by mutual caring energy.
Not to forget the general warmth that Donna and Simon are providing through their incredible space, around 5 pm every day, Will would make sure there’s enough wood to make a fire in the living room, the warmth of the coffee on your lips when the sun is about to rise.
All of this warmth would greet me after all my days of being in full darkness, where I would revisit the negatives for my current project about the first female solo travel writer in the world. Traveling on my own has not always been as smooth, but being a resident at Joya:Air provides me with further tools for my next adventures and creative journey. Warmth and bright moments I shall keep safe like a snow globe when I return back to a landscape that is covered with snow.

Nina Maria Allmoslechner

Nina Maria is a lens-based artist from Austria (b.1998). She graduated in Documentary Photography BA from the University of Arts London in 2021. Her practice is predominantly concerned with vulnerable topics around mental health, womanhood, body image, sexuality, and lens-based memory representation. Nina uses mainly alternative processes such as super 8mm film and analog imagery, she often works with archives that she finds at flea markets wherever she goes or other historical ones that are left behind.
Nina is currently working on several projects from Iceland, including a project about the first woman who wrote travel diaries, Ida Pfeiffer (1797-1858), who was from Austria like herself.